ELECTION RESULTS: Texas’ 23rd Congressional District race in the Nov. 3, 2026, midterms

Watch KSAT’s live election results stream with Myra Arthur and Ernie Zuniga here. Election results will begin populating at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Find more election coverage on the Vote 2026 page.

After a sex scandal with a staffer led Republican Tony Gonzales to drop his reelection bid and resign from Congress, three candidates seek to represent Texas’ largest congressional district by geographic area, which stretches from San Antonio to El Paso.

>> After Tony Gonzales sex scandal, candidates battle for Texas’ largest congressional district

The race is one of the most competitive U.S. House races in the state. Historically, the district has brought a close race between both parties, flipping every few years through the early 2000s. But in the last decade, there has been a strong Republican hold on the congressional seat.

Republican Brandon Herrera, Democrat Katy Padilla Stout, and Independent Ben Mendoza are vying for the vacant seat.

Herrera, a well-known social media personality with over 4 million YouTube subscribers, is a Second Amendment activist who is endorsed by President Donald Trump.

“Brandon is a very strong constitutionalist who believes one of the keys to individual Liberty is limiting federal power as much as possible, and returning that power to the states to decide issues for themselves,” his campaign website states.

Herrera has a history of making crude and controversial comments that have been criticized by members of both parties. He previously ran for the seat but fell just about 400 votes short of defeating Gonzales in the 2024 GOP runoff.

Padilla Stout is an attorney and former teacher who is pushing to flip the seat back to blue.

Ahead of the March primary, Padilla Stout told KSAT that affordability and education are two top issues she has been focusing on in her campaign.

“If we can’t afford our day-to-day life, if we can’t have a decent standard of living for our citizens, then every other part of our society kind of collapses,” Padilla Stout said. “I’ve run on the platform of having or helping happy, healthy families.”

Mendoza is based in El Paso. According to Ballotpedia, he unsuccessfully ran for mayor and councilmember for the City of El Paso, El Paso Independent School District school board, as well as Texas House District 16.

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Find election results on the Vote 2026 page.